The Madras high court has, while considering a series of writ petitions with regard to the common question of release of goods under section 129 of the GST Act, held that a transporter can seek release of conveyance alone, and not goods under the GST Act. The court said that the entitlement to seek release under the section has been carefully and consciously sculpted to only the owner of the goods or to his agent, and not to a transporter.
“It falls upon the transporter to take appropriate action at the least to safeguard the conveyance in which the consignment had been transported, however, the transporter cannot go any further step forward and argue that the provisions of Section 129 (1) and (6), would permit him to have the release of detained goods, upon compliance with the conditions set out there in”, the court added.
Further, explaining interpretations of the disputed section, Dr.Justice Anita Sumanth pointed out that the provisions of Section 129(6) that deploys the phrase ‘person transporting any goods or the owner of such goods’ ,hinges upon the stand of revenue that the ‘conveyance’ shall be released on payment of penalty or a sum of Rs.1,00,000/- whichever is less, by the transporter.
Thus, “a consideration of Section 129 read with other relevant provisions of the Act, points out that section 129(1) specifically addresses the phrase “any person transporting any goods or storing any good”, in alignment with the use of the phraseology, ‘person transporting any goods or the owner of such goods’ that is used in sub-Section 6.And this interpretation being supported by the language used in the first proviso to the section , specifically using the term ‘transporter’ and stating the release of the conveyance on payment of penalty, the entitlement to seek release under Section 129 is only qua the owner/agent/representative of the owner”, the court concluded.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates
